USC Halloween shooting prompts new safety efforts

Ten weeks after four people were shot at an on-campus Halloween party, the University of Southern California is enforcing new safety checkpoints.

New pedestrian gates are being installed on the USC campus. When the new semester starts next week, all pedestrian gates will be closed at 9 p.m. every night and re-opened at 6 a.m. the next day.

Guests will also need an invitation from a student or employee and government identification to walk or drive onto campus at night. Guards will be at the eight busiest gates to enforce ID and registration rules.

These are the first access restrictions to pedestrians at USC in modern history.

On Halloween night, hundreds of people gathered for an on-campus party when an alleged gang member opened fire, wounding four people including former Crenshaw High School standout football player Geno Hall.

Students say they favor the safety improvements.

"Obviously it's not ideal, but there have been a few situations going on this past semester that have been kind of dangerous and pretty scary," said Alex Diehl. "So I think that until we can figure out a better solution I understand why they're doing that."